This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Firefox Crashes on Youtube When Playing HD Videos Using HTML5

  • 2 replies
  • 11 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by diagonal

diagonal
diagonal
more options

So I have an oddly specific problem that just started out of the blue a couple days ago (by out of the blue, I mean there were no Firefox upgrades or other things that I could point to as a trigger).

The Problem: Whenever I go to YouTube, I can watch videos at 480p resolutions and lower. However, the instant I try to switch to 720p or 1080p, Firefox crashes. Every time on any video on Youtube (if anyone knows of another HTML5 video site I can test this on, let me know). I have had no trouble watching HD videos up until this point.

The Information:

Computer: Macbook Pro, about 2 years old

OS: OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), all updates installed

Firefox version: 39.0

Report number: bp-a653d5a1-aa65-46d7-9dac-ab3862150710

Things I have Tried:

- Clearing cache and cookies - crash still happens

- Starting Firefox in safe mode - crash still happens

- Restarting the computer - crash still happens

- Manually disabling all add-ons - crash still happens

- Refreshing Firefox - crash still happens

- Checking for computer errors - disk check came back with no errors

I believe this to be a Firefox/HTML5 error because:

- Chrome and Safari both work fine on YouTube for HD videos with HTML5

- I have temporarily "solved" my problem by installing a Firefox add-on that forces YouTube to use Flash. The crash does not occur when using Flash for HD videos instead of HTML5.

So I have an oddly specific problem that just started out of the blue a couple days ago (by out of the blue, I mean there were no Firefox upgrades or other things that I could point to as a trigger). The Problem: Whenever I go to YouTube, I can watch videos at 480p resolutions and lower. However, the instant I try to switch to 720p or 1080p, Firefox crashes. Every time on any video on Youtube (if anyone knows of another HTML5 video site I can test this on, let me know). I have had no trouble watching HD videos up until this point. The Information: Computer: Macbook Pro, about 2 years old OS: OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), all updates installed Firefox version: 39.0 Report number: bp-a653d5a1-aa65-46d7-9dac-ab3862150710 Things I have Tried: - Clearing cache and cookies - crash still happens - Starting Firefox in safe mode - crash still happens - Restarting the computer - crash still happens - Manually disabling all add-ons - crash still happens - Refreshing Firefox - crash still happens - Checking for computer errors - disk check came back with no errors I believe this to be a Firefox/HTML5 error because: - Chrome and Safari both work fine on YouTube for HD videos with HTML5 - I have temporarily "solved" my problem by installing a Firefox add-on that forces YouTube to use Flash. The crash does not occur when using Flash for HD videos instead of HTML5.

Modified by diagonal

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs
more options

The crash you are seeing, is there external software that this might mean anything to you? Crash Reason EXC_SOFTWARE / SIGABRT

Please also make sure that you have updated to the newer version of flash that came out about Wed.

diagonal
diagonal Question owner
more options

guigs2 said

The crash you are seeing, is there external software that this might mean anything to you? Crash Reason EXC_SOFTWARE / SIGABRT Please also make sure that you have updated to the newer version of flash that came out about Wed.

No, I would assume that is Firefox itself getting the abort signal, since what I've found on Google seems to imply that's an error that can occur in any program that does an illegal operation. This crash still occurs when no other software (other than Firefox and the OS itself) is running.

At this point I have also tried reinstalling the OS from OS X recovery mode - the crash still occurs, so this is probably not an OS problem. Firefox is the only program that is crashing.

I have updated to the latest Flash versions, but since this is an HTML5 problem and not a Flash problem, that makes no difference either.

Modified by diagonal